


Too Far Gone

by Nikikeya, Raditzthehairball



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Gen, Multi, toofargone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 19:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11743530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikikeya/pseuds/Nikikeya, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raditzthehairball/pseuds/Raditzthehairball
Summary: 14 Years old Raditz had had enough with Vegeta and Nappa's bullying and decided to make his grand escape.





	1. The Grand Escape

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nikikeya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikikeya/gifts).



**Chapter One**

* * *

Planet Contrunga was a dark and slimy place, with thick jungles covering a large portion of the surface. The inhabitants, humanoid bugs of various shapes and sizes, were too self-absorbed to even see it coming. They had never wanted to leave their safe heaven and venture out into space, thinking the world around them only contained within the planet. And so, when three round 'meteor' came crashing down from the sky, breaking their infrastructures before creating three enormous craters, they didn't think much of them. That was until the round spheres hatched open and the three creatures stepped outside. The first to come out was a large one. Unlike the Contrunga people, it had pale color, two small eyes, no mandibles, and a pointy thing above its mouth which they had no words for. The following two were the same, only much, much smaller. The three aliens all had fur on their heads. The biggest one though, also had fur above its mouth. Their body were covered in strange looking exoskeletons, only protecting the torso and shoulders. Even stranger were the thing on their eyes, attached to the side of their heads. The one with the most amount of fur used its finger to push on the ear-piece thing, it beeped and things started showing on the over-the-eye part of the device. It made a chuckling sound with its mouth. They began hovering out of the hole despite having no visible wings on their backs. All the Contrungans were astonished. They just stared curiously.

The silent moment of surprise had ended abruptly. The biggest alien raised a hand. Out of a sudden, a white glow formed around its extended palm.

_**BLAST!** _

The white energy shot from the alien's hand, too fast even for their arthropod eyes, and landed at the feet of the crowd. It exploded into a bright light, generating an extreme heat and a force so great it tossed even the bugs at the far back into the air. The other two aliens also began throwing bright energy balls at the inhabitants. Soon, chaos and mass hysteria broke out. The bugs's screaming mixed with the sound of destruction and the three alien's malevolent laughter created a true horror show. One that none of the Contrungans would live long enough to recite.

That was a week ago…

Now, the three aliens were sitting in a triangular formation, surrounded by miniature mountains of corpses, the result of their week long killing spree. The large one sitting on one side and the fuzzy one on the other, both's attention seemed to center around the smallest one who was sitting on a boulder, clearly showing his dominance in comparison to his two companion who had to settle on the ground. Even so, he still barely reached the large one's torso.

They were saiyans, or more specifically, the last three remaining saiyans known to date. Their entire race had been wiped out when a meteor collided with their home planet, or at least that was what everyone told them. They weren't there to see any of it. The three were luckily on another planet when it had happened. One could say it was quite tragic, but since most knew who the saiyans people really were, no one felt bad about them exploding into bits. You see, the saiyan was a race of alien descended from great apes and monkeys. They shared the same features as us, the people of Earth. The only visible differences are two things. One is that, unlike us, they still kept the brown fuzzy tail of their ancestor. Secondly, their fangs are still much sharper than ours. Anatomy aside, what really made them special was their strength and combat ability. Planet Vegeta, where the saiyans lived, had the gravity of around 10x the Earth's. Not many planet in the galaxy had this special trait, making the saiyans much stronger when they travel to other planets. Even more terrifying, when looking at the full moon, the saiyans could turn into giant apes with their power multiplied. If only they had used their power with great responsibility… unfortunately, the saiyans are known throughout the galaxy as a race of savages and conquerer. They send their warriors to other planets to eradicate its inhabitants and sell it to the galactic overlord known as Frieza, in exchange for supplies, technology and more opportunities to show off their strengths. The saiyans had wiped out hundreds of alien species throughout the galaxy, causing sufferings and devastation wherever they landed, hence the whole galaxy cheered when they heard news of Planet Vegeta being blown up by a meteor. No one even cared to question why all the saiyans were on the planet on that particular day despite the fact that most saiyans only return to the planet every few months. They all agreed it was destiny, pure justice and karma taking their course in the right direction.

It had been several years since the day they had received news of their home world's demise. Raditz, the saiyan with an unusual mass of spiky long hair, had almost gotten over it. Almost. He had had the honor (more like the horror) of being the conquering partner of Prince Vegeta, the firstborn son of the latest saiyan emperor: King Vegeta. It was a tradition of the Saiyan kings to name their firstborn son Vegeta, so the name would forever be passed on. Raditz thought it was stupid, seeing the planet was already named Vegeta. It was confusing and annoying. But he dared not speak his mind. Not that he wasn't allowed to, more like because he wanted to draw no attention from the upper class saiyans. He was classified as a Low-class warrior for having been born with power level only a bit over five. In the saiyan society, the low-class saiyans were looked down upon and treated like trash. It wasn't uncommon for a low class to be beaten half dead for simply looking at an upper class the wrong way, let alone complaining about the king's ingenious decisions. Raditz himself had been the victim of these kinds of beating ever since he learned to fight.

That said, being paired with Vegeta (the prince) was a nightmare. The prince looked smaller than him, but he was far stronger, and also a total brat. The prince would demand things from him, boss him around and then beat him up if he ever refused to do so. Then there came Nappa. Not long before Vegeta (the planet) was destroyed, Nappa had joined them on the planet they were clearing. He said Vegeta (the king) had ordered for him to come supervise Vegeta (the prince). And that was when Hell really began for the little long haired saiyan boy. Whenever Vegeta throw a tantrum or needed stress relief, Nappa would make sure Raditz was kept in place so the prince could punch and kick him. The low-class saiyan could still remember the day Vegeta received the news that their planet was gone, along with everyone else. By the time Vegeta had calmed down enough, Raditz could feel his life hanging by a thread. He could barely breathe, nor could he even twitch a finger. Thankfully, Nappa wasn't a complete asshole and had checked his vital once Vegeta had left. He probably was worried about losing another saiyan, and thus had dropped him off (literally) at the medical bay of the ship.

The point was: He hated his situation right now and missed having a place to return to and escape from Prince Vegeta for as long as he could. He missed his mother and father. After two years spent growing in an incubator like all saiyan children, he had had the pleasure of knowing his parents. His father, Bardock, was the definition of the word 'badass'. The man was a low-class warrior like himself. However, he was also the most famous low-class warrior ever lived. Some people even dared to compare him to King Vegeta in term of strength. He was also a brilliant mind when it came to forming strategies and finding better ways to get the job done. Raditz had heard from others that he had created the false-moon technique to aid his comrades one time, and then all the elite soldiers had adopted it. He was far from a kind father, but Raditz idolized him. Then there was his mother, Gine. She was a strange case for a saiyan. Instead of leaving her children to the scientists to go chasing the thrill of fighting, she had chosen to give up her title as a warrior and stayed on the planet. She was the one Raditz missed the most of his two parents for she was always there for him to unload all the things he couldn't tell Vegeta face-to-face. All the time he spent on Planet Vegeta between missions were spent around her. Bardock occasionally returned coincidently at the same time as him, but most they ever did together was training. Raditz didn't mind getting beaten up by his father though, at least he got to be with him once in awhile.

Now all that was over. They were all dead and he is stuck with the two biggest jerks in the galaxy forever. Nowhere to go to, no one to really talk to. Raditz held back a sigh, continue listening to the two discussing the next target.

"So which one are we going for next?" Asked Nappa.

"Toria is the nearest. I want to get it done as fast as we can." Answered the young prince, crossing his arms.

"Didn't they say the inhabitants there are pretty tough? Why don't we leave it for last?" Raditz suggested.

"Even a saibaman is tough to you Raditz." Vegeta rolled his eyes. Nappa snickered.

"I'm just speaking strategically. We should go from the weakest."

"No one asked for your opinion, hairball."

"But-"

"NAPPA!" Shouted Vegeta.

Immediately, Nappa reached out a hand and knocked Raditz on the head. The long haired saiyan let out a pained cry, putting both hands on the bump that had just formed where Nappa had hit him. A single tear almost escaped the corner of his eye.

"What a wuss." was Vegeta's last comment before stating he had made his decision and that no one was going to to question it. Raditz decided to just let the two stronger saiyans have their way. He just looked down at the ground and continued thinking about his parents. However, he was soon snapped out of his thoughts when a sharp pain struck his head.

"What?" He snapped at the big brute who had just smacked him on the head AGAIN.

"Hair tangled your brain? I said go get some food!" Vegeta was glaring at him in his usual bossy demeanor.

"You have legs too!" Muttered Raditz.

"Nappa."

_**SMACK!** _

"Ow!"

"i'm not repeating myself, Hairball." Vegeta's eyes glinted dangerously.

Raditz muttered some curse words, still rubbing his head. He forced himself to not retort anymore and just do what they wanted. The long haired saiyan stood up. Now almost in his mid-teen, he had grown quite a lot. If both were standing up straight, the top of Vegeta's paintbrush hair could only reach his shoulder. He dusted himself and shook the dirt off his hair as he walked away from his comrades.

* * *

"What a bunch of assholes!" Raditz yelled, now flying over the trees, looking around for anything he could get. Of course he wasn't planning on returning soon. He would make sure to stuff himself first, THEN give them the leftovers.

"Because that's what they deserve!" The teenage saiyan muttered. "Oh Raditz we're hungry, go get food. Hey Raditz, clean that up. Raditz, fix my scouter~ What am I? A fucking slave?"

He flew without really paying attention to where he was going, fantasizing about how he could enact his revenge, how Vegeta and Nappa would have to kiss his feet in defeat. The abused teen knew it was all fantasies, but it was always comforting for him. He finally took notice of his surrounding when he saw the familiar scenery. It was the first city where they had arrived.

"Wow… I actually went this far?" He blinked in surprise, looking down at the three round space-pods lying in the craters. "I better go back to the forest if I want to find some edible food…"

They had found out bug alien food wasn't exactly good for their appetite and had resorted to eating the fruits. Of course Vegeta and Nappa always made him eat the fruits first, to make sure they could eat them. Luckily for him, none of the fruits they ever made him eat was actually lethal. Even though he said so, the teen was reluctant for some reason. His eyes fixed on the three round pods below. A thought had just crossed his mind. A thrilling… yet dangerous thought. He slowly descended to walk up to the pods. He absent-mindedly ran a hand along the smooth surface of the sphere. What if…

-RADITZ!-

"Huh? What?" He jumped at the sudden sound of Nappa coming from the scouter on his ear. In a panic, he nearly miss clicked the answering button. "I'm here."

-And there I thought that hair finally ate you and saved us the trouble.- Continued Nappa.

"You are just jealous cause your hair are falling out." Now that he was clearly far enough to not get himself killed, Raditz wasn't afraid to talk back. "What do you want?"

-Vegeta said if you're not back in the next 10 minutes-

"He'll kill me?" Asked the teen challengingly.

-I believe the correct wording was 'I'll pluck all his hair out and shove it down his throat until he choke and drown on it.' But yes. Chuckled Nappa. Also, get some water on your way back would ya?-

"I'm not- you know what? Fine. I'll get 'em. Just give me… a couple minutes" The fuzzy saiyan smirked mischievously, taking his scouter off. Effortlessly, he clenched his fist, crushing the device into pieces. Losing it was as good as making him even more vulnerable than he already was, but he couldn't risk the chance of them finding out about what he was about to do.

The teen crouched down to pick up one of the space pods. He carried it out of the crater, into a clearing far from it. Then, once he was sure it was safe. He returned to the other two pods. He turned them over so the weaker, softer inside was exposed before levitating himself up. When he was high enough, Raditz extended his hands, pointing downward at the two pods on the ground. Purple energy began forming around both of his hands.

"HAAAAAH! Take this you mofos! DOUBLE SUNDAYYY!" He screamed at the top of his lungs and fired the two energy blasts at the space pods. With a muffled explosion, the shell of the pods cracked, whilst the insides were completely blown into pieces. He quickly landed back down and torn all the wires left over in the pod, crushing any important mechanical parts still intact. Once he was satisfied, the long haired saiyan stepped back, staring at his masterpiece.

"Hahah..hah… I… actually did it… haha..." He gulped. several drops of sweat were rolling down his face. He had truly… done something. There was no turning back now.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Raditz jumped out of the hole, running as fast as he could into the third spacepod he had saved. "Oh my god Raditz you're so dead if they ever catch you!" He began pressing buttons and flicking switches to start the pod while mumbling to himself in a panic attack. Then he paused. Where should he go? Wherever it was he need to go, it had to be as far away from this planet as possible. Wait, he could go to that one planet where they had sent his baby brother! What was it? His mother once told him. GAH! He couldn't remember! Wait. He had saved his mother's message in his scouter, if he played it again he would be able to- OOZAR DAMMIT HE DESTROYED HIS SCOUTER!

"I'm so dead… I'll never have a mate…They're going to rip me into pieces… unrecognizable pieces… then blow me into smithereens… What have I done?"

He sat there, in the pod, breathing heavily. The lid of the spaceship had closed, leaving him in complete darkness, only the lights on the control pad to shine his facial feature. His breathing began to get slower. He needed to calm down. That's right… It didn't matter where he was going. They wouldn't be able to track him without his scouter. And once he get on a planet, he would destroy this space pod so they wouldn't be able to track it either. He ran a hand through his hair to put back the few strands of hair that had gone out of place during the whole unforgivable act he had committed. "I'll just go to the furthest planet possible…"

He ran his hand on the keyboard, typing the commands. The system had calculated that with the amount of fuel he had, the farthest planet he could go to was Planet 4032-Green-877, also known as "Planet Earth". He stared at the information, digesting every bit of it. The planet looked good. It was in fact too ideal to live. Visually it was a thousand times better looking than even Planet Vegeta.

"Only a year to get there… This should do... " Raditz gulped. He pressed the launch button. The space pod slowly levitated itself up and shot into the sky.

* * *

"I still can't get to him." Informed Nappa.

Vegeta pressed the button of his own ear device. The scouter beeped then an error occurred.

"Neither can mine."

"You think a bug got to him Vegeta?" Nappa snickered.

"He better hope a bug got to him before I do." Vegeta grunted. He was now flying alongside the large saiyan. They had had enough with waiting and decided to go see what force on the planet was powerful enough to make Raditz ignore what the two elite saiyans were going to do to him. It was a surprising, yet not completely unexpected, of the long haired saiyan to slack off when he was made to go do something.

"Vegeta! There's smoke coming up over there."

"I see that, Nappa."

"Vegeta! That's where we left our space pod!"

"I know that, Nappa."

"Vegeta! Someone destroyed our-"

"I SEE THAT NAPPA!" The prince yelled at the big idiot in frustration.

They quickly made their descend and looked the pods over. Someone had destroyed all the space pods, even went so far as to rip out all the parts and wires.

"Grr! How are we supposed to get back? What moron has the balls to do this?!" Nappa growled, kicking his destroyed pod away in anger.

"Use your brain for once Nappa. It's obvious!" Vegeta clenched his fists.

"The bug?"

"No you airhead!" Snapped the prince. "That hairball did it! His pod is gone! He destroyed ours so we cannot get to him!"

"Wow, he's not as stupid as I thought he was then, right Vegeta?." Chuckled Nappa.

"GRAAAAAAAAAH!" Vegeta screamed. In his anger, his energy blasted out, creating strong gusts of wind. He powered up, put his hands together and started chanting. "Garlick…."

"Vegeta, what're you doing?" Nappa blinked.

"...Gun…"

"I'm not kidding Prince Vegeta. I'm your supervisor! Stop that right this instant young Prince! Your father won't-"

"FUCK MY FATHER! FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The enormous explosion destroyed a large portion of the jungle, brightened up the sky in a blinding flash. Vegeta stood, panting in both anger and exhaustion. The smoke cleared and there Nappa stood. His armor was cracked and there were several burnt on his skin. However, the biggest change of all was the fact that all of his hair had been blown off. For some miraculous reason, the mustache was still intact.

"VEGETAA!" He screamed. "WHYYYYYY?"

_To be continued…_

* * *

_**Author's note:** _ _Thanks Nikikeya for the wonderful idea!_

_**Edit:** Thank you for correcting me. I kept remembering Vegeta-sei has 20x gravity for some reason haha_


	2. The Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raditz finally landed on the planet he had chosen. What could happen????

**Chapter 2**

* * *

It was a morning like any others for Bulma Brief, the younger daughter of one of the best scientists on Earth. Dr. Brief, as people often called him, was the person to invent the technology called the Hoi-Poi Capsules. A tiny capsule, able to fit into one's pocket, can contain things far bigger than itself, ranging from household appliances to a whole fully furnished home. Their usefulness had made them a worldwide phenomenon. Dr. Brief became a millionaire in a week and had founded the Capsule Corporation in West City to further improve and expand his inventions. The second floor of the three stories tall building was where she was, enjoying her usual refreshing morning bath. It was always a good thing to do before school. A nice hot bath to prepare her for a long boring day ahead.

Bulma had lived up to everyone's expectation as the daughter of such a brilliant scientist. She was the smartest girl in the junior high she was attending. But when you were so good at most of your classes, going to school became a dull thing to do. Needless to say, the blue haired girl was not expecting much when she woke up that morning.

Bulma leaned back, letting herself sink lower into the warm, foamy water. Maybe she should ask Vivian if she wanted to go get some new dresses at the mall after school. She heard there was a sale going on too, better go check that out before that annoying chick Cindy did. Yesterday, during breaks, Cindy had taken her boyfriend around school, showing him off to everybody like a new pair of shoes. She just wouldn't shut up about him and had taunted Bulma for not having one. It was so frustrating, yet true. Despite her intellect and (at least according to her and her mom) good look, Bulma hadn't been so lucky with her love life. She had tried dating a few boys but it all didn't end well. She actually didn't mind that much, but Cindy's behaviour was getting way out of hands.

"I wish I had a boyfriend...I'll show that bitch."

Her daydreaming words had been interrupted abruptly by a really strange sound, like something was moving really fast and-

CRASH!

Before her very eyes, an unidentified object broke through the roof, taking half of the bathroom along with it. The object crashed into her backyard, creating a gigantic crater.

Bulma was dumbfounded for a whole minute, her mind refusing to register what had just happened. Then came the panic. She climbed out of the tub, grabbed her towel to cover herself and looked out of the hole the thing had made on her house. She could hear her mother's shrieking from downstairs. Her father was on a scientist conference in North City so she wasn't so concerned about him. But sweet Kami, what had just happened?

* * *

After it had shot out a blast of cooling air, the round spacepod hatched open. The long haired saiyan stepped outside. He took in a breath of the fresh air and smirked. He had almost completed his grand escape. Only one more step.

Raditz levitated himself out of the hole, he turned to face the sphere one last time. It was his favorite.

"Goodbye old friend." He raised his hand and blasted it as hard as possible. Similarly to his old "comrades" 's pod, it cracked, and exploded on the inside. He used his finger to shoot smaller energy blasts at the left over parts just to be sure. Then once all of that was done, the saiyan just burst out laughing.

For once in his miserable life he laughed wholeheartedly. It was awesome. He had taken his revenge on the two bastards, and got away scratch free! From now on, he would have no one tell him what to do. No more space conquests, no more freaking creepy Frieza soldiers, no more senseless beatings. At least not until they figured out where he went. For now, he should just enjoy this. There were so many things he wanted to do, but afraid of ruining the saiyan image. Vegeta was always so serious about it.

So, the first thing he did, after destroying his only way of getting out of the planet, was to un-warp his tail. It had gotten so stiff after a long time it was made to stay around his waist. And this time there was no Vegeta or Nappa to reprimand him about it. So yeah, fuck saiyan etiquette. He looked down at his tail, amused by its movement. Then,

"YOU ALMOST KILLED ME YOU FREAKING HAIRY SON OF A- AAAAARGH! WHAT ARE YOU? A DRUNKARD? YOU BETTER GET OVER HERE AND FIX THIS OR PAY FOR THE DAMAGE!"

A female (he guessed) shrieking distracted him. He looked behind him but saw nothing. Then his eyes followed the continued sound of cursing and yelling to the second floor. There it was. An assumedly female Earthling, almost naked with a soft cover around its body. He was a bit surprised as to how similar their body structure and his own seemed. But then again, he noticed no tail on her. The female continued yelling in the galaxy universal language, though certain terms was unfamiliar to him. He ignored her though. After a whole year in space, he was starving, and the Earthling didn't seem to possess any food on her.

Then, he noticed another female coming out from one of the doors below. This one was blonde, taller and had a funny expression on her face. She came out and paused in surprise at the sight of him. She put a hand on her cheek in shock when she also saw the hole and smoke behind him.

"Oh my. Young man, are you hurt?" she asked cluelessly.

The blue haired female upstairs had stopped yelling when she saw the blonde woman. But soon looked angry again.

"Mooom! He caused this! Look what his stupid plane done to my bathroom!" The younger female raised her voice again, though not as annoyingly loud as before.

Raditz snickered at the word 'plane'.

Normally, he would have to kill them. But he was a free man now, so he decided to let the people on this planet live. Oh, it felt great to be able to 'decide' something. Just then, his stomach growled so loud he wondered if the two assholes in space could hear it.

The blonde woman smiled sweetly. "Oh are you hungry dear?"

The saiyan looked at her, still a bit of suspicion lingered in him.

His stomach growled again.

He nodded. Suddenly a bit embarrassed because of how she stared at him.

"Oh poor boy~"

He was even more surprised when the blonde woman wasn't afraid to come over, put a hand on his shoulder and started pushing him toward the house. Now that she was next to him, he realized he was a whole head shorter than her. "Come on dear. No one should be starving at the Brief's. Come inside, I'll get you something to eat~"

"Moooooom! Didn't you hear what I just said?!" He could hear the blue haired one's voice raining down from above as he was pushed through the door.

* * *

"Oh my, how long had it been since you last ate something?"

Mrs. Brief asked, tilting her head curiously. She had never seen anyone eat so much in her life. The teenager she brought into her home had just cleared her whole refrigerator, and still demanded more. She had to take more food from the pantry and called the family chef to make more. Even the young cook was shocked to see it.

"I suppose I'll have to go make a call to the delivery service or we'll all have nothing for lunch..." The man had said before leaving.

"One year." The long haired teen replied, not looking up, still gorging himself.

"Really, dear? Why is that? Did you run away from home?" The woman asked with real concern. Though she had already guessed since she knew some parents wouldn't like their child having such a rebellious hairstyle.

The strange boy glanced up as he swallowed a mouthful then wiped his lips with one hand. He shrugged. "Something like that." He then pointed at the empty plate of takoyaki. "This stuff is good. You got more of it?"

"Oh sure. I'll tell our chef to make you another plate." The cheerful woman giggled.

"Make it five." The boy raised five fingers, now chomping on a drumstick.

"Oh I love to see young people so eager for food. My daughter Bulma keep refusing to eat because she afraid of getting fat. I think youngsters like you kids should enjoy your food so you can grow strong and healthy. Oops I'm rambling again. Anyway, you should try the sweets I made."

She put a jar of cookies on the table for him. But suddenly, the jar was snatched from the table by pale, young arm.

"Mom! You can't just feed anyone who comes to our house, let alone some drunk-flying delinquent who broke half our second floor!"

There Bulma stood, with her chest puffed, folding her arms. She had now gotten herself into a stylish outfit: A blue denim skirt, a black and white striped sweaters, a black choker on her neck and a pair of sneakers. Her hair now dried and tied up in a pony-tail. Even after such event, the girl still had time to dress up for school. She even had her makeup on. It was as if nothing on Earth could make her leave the bedroom unprepared.

"Oh but Bulma, dear, this poor young man is starving."

"What about our home? Who's gonna fix it?" Bulma stomped over and stood face to face with the long haired stranger. She snatched the food away from his hand and proceeded to point a finger at him threateningly. "Now you listen here! I don't know who you are, and I don't care, but you have destroyed our home, ate all of our food and made a mess in our kitchen. So you had better pay up! Or I'll have the police take care of you."

The boy just looked at her, then as if thinking she wasn't worth talking to, snatched the plate back. Surprised but still wanting to stand her ground, Bulma pulled the plate back. The long haired boy growled angrily and pulled the dish toward him, and Bulma along with it.

"Kyaa."

The blue haired girl slid across the table, unable to resist the boy's strength. She closed her eyes to avoid the food on the way and ended up landing on the stranger's torso. Despite a layer of armor, she could still feel the warmth of his body. They both stared at each other, her face really just inches from his. Bulma's face turned red. Her heart started pounding. She hadn't been that close to a boy in a long time. Her last boyfriend was actually a year ago.

It was when they heard the voice of Mrs. Brief coming back into the room that snapped them back to reality. She pushed herself away from him and realized her clothes were covered in sauces and pieces of food.

"So I just called the chef, he said he will bring more food over in 30 minutes- Oh my, what happened to your clothes?" The blonde woman stood in surprise at the doorway.

"I- He- Ugh!" Bulma stomped in frustration, her face still a bit red. "I'm going to be late for school. I'll deal with you later, you- hairball! You better done something to fix the damage when I get back or else!" She turned back to point at him once again. "And you smell like crap!"

"Bulma, dear, language." Mrs. Brief scolded softly.

* * *

Raditz had quickly gotten over the little quarrel with the young female Earthling and just focuses on the food. By the time he was satisfied, the amount of plates and bowls had nearly reached the ceiling. He was amazed by the unexpected good result of his random choice of planet. The food was far better than anything he had tasted before in space and the Earthlings seemed to be too hospitable. At least aside from that blue haired one.

Mrs. Brief had decided it was time to intrigue him about his origin. She kept trying to make him talk while she was putting the plates into the dishwashers. Now too full, the saiyan had gotten sleepy and too lazy for talk, but since she had fed him, the teen had tried to keep her company. So far he had learned her name was Panchy Brief, wife of a scientist, and mother of that crazy blue haired chick. (Speaking of the chick, he had caught a glimpse of her stomping pass the kitchen in a new outfit, sending him an angry glare as she did.)

"Raditz? That's an interesting name. Are your parents farmers?" The woman smiled.

"No." He leaned on the chair, putting both hands behind his head.

"Then what do they do?"

"My mother butchers animals. My father takes over planets."

Panchy was dumbfounded for a moment, then put a hand over her mouth and giggled. "Aw. You kids and your video games."

"I don't know what that is."

"You don't? I'll have Bulma show you later. So, where're you from?"

"Planet Vegeta"

"I've never heard of such place before."

"It exploded. A meteor hit it."

"... Oh. So your hometown is gone?"

"Yep."

"And your parents?"

"Didn't make it."

"What about your relatives?"

"They all died in the impact. I was away from when it happened."

There was silent, and then the blonde woman started sobbing, which made the saiyan turned to look. No one had ever cried hearing his story before. Most people had joked and laughed about it. So it was surprising and awkward for the teen to see Mrs. Brief's face full of tears.

"I'm so sorry I asked, dear. You must have been terrified." She walked over and attempted to give him a hug, to which he dodged.

"It's- it's fine. It's been years. I've gotten over it." Replied Raditz uncomfortably. He never had to deal with such things before. Usually, when people cried, he ended up killing them…

"It's just so sad. I could never imagine my Bulma living without her parents." The woman sniffed. "If -sniff- if you have nowhere else to go -sniff- you can live with us here. I'll talk to my husband, don't worry." She stepped closer, still wanting to give him a comforting hug.

"I- " Raditz backed away and felt his back pressed against the wall. He was cornered. And saiyans weren't fan of being cornered. The teenage saiyan clenched his fist and punched through the wall behind him to make his escape. He jumped through the hole on the wall and just broke through the window of the next room. He stood panting against the wall outside the building, heart racing fast. He wasn't ready for that.

"My goodness, young man. Did you just break through my window?" A voice out of nowhere made him jump. Ever since he had lost his scouter, Raditz felt like he was half blind. His senses had been relying on the device for so long he couldn't sense someone creeping up on him without it.

He turned to look and saw a male Earthling. He looked older than the other two he had encountered with the thick moustache. His hair and facial hair were both light purple in color. He had a pair of glasses on his face and wore a suit and tie. The man was also carrying a suitcase.

Shocked by his sudden appearance, Raditz couldn't utter a word. He looked at the window then at the man.

"Oh honey, you're home?" Mrs. Brief's voice saved him the trouble. The blonde woman looked at her husband through what was left of the window with her eternal smiley face.

"Yeah. The neighbors called me. They said something happened to the house so I wrapped things up early." Mr. Brief answered his wife, the cigarette on his lips moved up and down.

At the reminder of what had happened, Panchy broke out crying again.

"What happened? Is Bulma alright?" Surprised to see his wife in such a state, Dr. Brief urged her. His first guess was that something had happened to their daughter.

"No, she's fine. It's something else." Mrs. Brief cleaned her eyes with a tissue. She then proceeded to tell him about Raditz and what had happened, along with his tragic backstory.

The saiyan didn't know why he decided to stay. Could be that he was curious to see what was going to happen, could be all the food he had had clouded his better judgment.

"My god. So you are the only survivor?" Asked the scientist in shock.

Seeing no harm in telling them, he answered anyway. Maybe if he make them feel pity enough they would give him more food later. Now that sounded like a plan. "There were two others. But they like to beat me up so I took a spacepod and ran away."

"That's horrible." The man exclaimed. But then he blinked in confusion. "Wait, did you say space-pod?"

"I did."

"As in?"

"It's a spaceship. But it's round so they called it-"

"So you're from space?"

"Uh huh."

"Like. Real space? Not something like the Yogurt Space?"

"What's a yogurt?"

"Sweet Kami! Where is the pod?" The man put both hands on the boy's shoulders and shook him eagerly.

A few minutes later, Dr. Brief's heartbreaking cry could be heard throughout West City. The poor scientist was hugging what was left of the space pod, crying uncontrollably.

"NOOOO! ALL THE TECHNOLOGY! ALL OF THEM! GONEEE! WHYYYYYYY?!" He held the blackened pieces and continued weeping.

Raditz watched him in confusion. It didn't make sense to him why someone would cry for a space pod, especially when they didn't even know what it was a minute ago. What was wrong with people around here? But watching him like that did make him feel bad a little.

"I had to blow it up so they won't be able to track me." He shrugged.

"Well, it's already gone, dear. Why don't we all get inside and have some drinks?" Panchy put a hand on her cheek and tilted her head.

Dr. Brief sighed. He stood up from the wreckage but still stared at it. "Perhaps some part's still undamaged. I'll bring it into my lab later." He then turned to the young saiyan. "As for you, my boy, if you are planning to stay on Earth from now. How about you come leave with us? I would like to hear more about your life in space."

"Live with you?" Raditz blinked. He did liked having a place to sleep and all of the food he had from their kitchen were delicious. He was about to accept the too good to be true offer, but a thought crossed his mind. Did he really deserve this? The old man wanting to know about his life in space made the horrible images of the time he slaughtered a family of aliens came to mind, along with all his other slayings.

Influenced his mother, Raditz wasn't entirely cold hearted. More than once he had purposely let those running from him get away, mostly if it was a mother and child. But whenever Vegeta and Nappa were there, they would make him finish the job. And he had to, or they would have deemed him worthless (not that they hadn't already) and kill him like the rest of the planet's inhabitants. He had told himself to like it, forced himself to laugh along with his comrades, but sometimes he thought about the look on their faces when he was alone. The look of shock, hopelessness and pure terror. Gine once told him she hated it and so never wanted to be a conqueror. Raditz didn't think much of it before. As a child, he wanted to be a great warrior like his father and did enjoyed killing. However, ever since the day his parents were gone, he had developed a soft spot for families. Unlike his two comrades who hated their parents, the long haired saiyan was devastated to lose his. He knew what it was like to lose someone he cared about. But unlike his mother, he had to get the job done for his own sake and thus, it was either kill them all so they wouldn't be separated, or let them live to grief together while he get belittled by the other two saiyans. Most times it was the former option, as his pride didn't allow anyone, especially Vegeta, to have a chance to think lesser of him.

No, with such a record, he deserved none of this. These Earthlings had been kind to him because they didn't know anything he had done. If they had, they would be running or attempt to chase him away.

"So? What do you say?" The old man's voice pulled him back to the conversation.

The saiyan looked at both of their eager faces. Made up his mind, he took an intimidating stance. His head held high and his arms crossed.

"HAHAHAHA YOU FOOLS!" Laughed Raditz. "You have been tricked. I'm not just any alien from space. I'm a Saiyan, a race of alien conquerors. I have come here to take over your planet and sell it to an evil galactic overlord! And now that you idiots have fed me, I have enough strength to slaughter you all!"

The couple blinked at him then looked at each other. They seemed more confused than scared. It looked to the saiyan that some demonstration was needed.

He formed an energy blast in his hand and shot it toward the building. With a loud explosion, another large portion of the building was blown off. Both of the humans stared in shock.

My goodness. That was Bulma's bedroom." Dr. Brief sweat-dropped.

"Oh dear…" Mrs. Brief sighed.

"That's just the tip of my strength, Earthlings." Raditz laughed. But then, he stopped when he saw their expression hadn't changed. "Doesn't that scare you?"

"Raditz, my boy, if you had really wanted to kill us, we wouldn't be standing here." Dr. Brief puffed his cigarette.

"I- You-" Raditz gasped in disbelief. The old man had a point though…

" So, are you going to live with us, dear? We'll take care of everything. And maybe you can go to school with our sweet little Bulma. You look to be around her age!" Mrs. Brief clapped her hands together.

"I- You people are Crazy! I have killed thousands and millions of people on other planets. My hands have been stained in blood ever since I was a mere child." The saiyan teen yelled, ignoring how his tail was nervously dropping between his legs. "Would you still want to keep a cold blooded killer in your home?"

"As long as you agree to not do that anymore~" Said the blonde woman, completely missing the point.

"I LITERALLY JUST BLEW YOUR HOUSE UP!" Screamed Raditz.

"Oh don't worry, sonnie. I'll call someone to fix it all up in no time." Replied the scientist without a care in the world.

Raditz stood dumbfounded, then hung his head low in defeat. "Fine then…"

"So you agreed?" Asked Panchy expectingly.

"Do what you want… "

"Oh my! This is great!" She clapped excitedly then lunged forward to hug him again. This time, the saiyan didn't dodge. He was too busy trying to let all of the weirdness sink in to even care when she pulled him inside while her husband made a phone call.

A strange, yet familiar feeling swelled up in his mind. It felt warm. Like… Like when his mother would give him a welcoming hug when he got home.

But they were complete strangers…

Perhaps…

No...

Maybe…

But…

The young teen thought of sneaking away, but then, he looked up at Mrs. Brief, at how cheerful she seemed and the thought crossed his mind.

He wanted to stay.

* * *

**Author's note:** Thank you guys for telling me about Tights. I didn't know xD


	3. Arc-nemesis Acquired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raditz realizing Earth isn't such a safe planet after all...

**Chapter 3**

* * *

 

"SAY WHAAAAAT?!"

Bulma Brief screamed at the top of her lungs, eyes opened widely in shock. Her school bag dropped to the ground as her arms flopped, losing all the strength. She had just arrived home, only to find two police officers at the doorstep, talking to her mother. It wasn't a surprise, due to what had happened in the morning. But when the girl came into the living room, she was caught off guard by the presence of that weirdo again. That boy with the rock star hairdo and a tail was just chilling on her family's sofa, talking to her father. Though, it was when her parents had announced the news did she screamed in horror.

"Mom! Dad! You two can't be serious!" The teenage girl continued, throwing her arms around in frustration. "He wrecked our house and now you want to ADOPT him? I'm sorry, but ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?"

"Calm down dear, sit down first." Dr. Brief told her daughter, patting the empty arm chair.

She stood, breathing angrily, for a while then reluctantly dropped herself onto the chair, crossing her arm. Her fiery eyes never left the boy. What had he done to her parents that made them think it was a good idea?

Panchy also joined them soon after with a tray of lemonade. She sat down beside her husband and started telling her everything. Bulma listened to it, her stare softened a little but she still showed no sign of being convinced. The boy didn't even seem to be paying attention to the conversation. He was more interested in the juice, taking a sip and winced, sticking his tongue out.

"Since he had lost all of his relatives, and has nowhere to go, we decided to take him in." Mrs. Brief finished up her story.

"Honey, I know this is too sudden for you, and he didn't make a good first impression, but wouldn't it be good to have a brother? Seeing your sister is away?" Dr. Brief followed up with his own persuasion.

"But… if what you said were true, that he was a part of an alien race that like to go around blowing things up and killing people," Bulma argued. "Then he is a murderer! You are keeping a dangerous person in our home!"

"He hadn't killed anyone here had he? He told us he wanted to change his life." Dr. Brief lit another cigarette. "Besides, I'd like to know more about where he came from."

"What makes you think he won't start killing again? And you said he ran away from two other worse murderers. They could be arriving here any minute and doomed us all."

"It'll take them a while." The boy suddenly spoke. He was poking the slice of lemon with the straw. "I destroyed their space-pods. It would take months for them to be rescued, and even more so to search through thousands of planet. Unless they are so lucky they got here on their first try."

They watched as he picked up the piece of lemon and put it in his mouth, only to spat it out in an instant. "Erk! Sour!"

"SO. There you go, honey. Nothing to worry about." Dr. Brief turned to his daughter and smiled.

"We already made an appointment with our lawyer to legally adopt him!" Panchy chimed in.

Bulma realized how happy and excited her mom was. She sighed. Having had two daughters, her mother had always wanted a son. They were her parents after all so she had no real power in the matter anyway. Eventually, she stood up. "Fine. Do what you want. But don't you dare let him near my room!" She snatched her bag and stomped upstairs. The couple stared, listening to the sound of her footsteps. Then they heard the door opened and…

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

* * *

Raditz set the glass of strange yellowish drink on the table. It tasted horrible. But after a moment, he picked it up again and took another sip. It still tasted the same, but he couldn't stop. He kept taking small sips every few minutes, waiting for the parents to finish talking to their daughter. He then found fascination in the slice of fruit floating inside and was studying it. Though he glanced up when the girl made her argument.

He had to admit she made more sense than the couple, noticing the fact he wasn't someone such kind people like them should be around. But he had made his decision, that he was going to live with them to repay for their nice treatment to him. Therefore, it was self-compulsed of him to say something to reassure the family. Even though he said there was no worry about Vegeta and Nappa finding him soon, the saiyan still felt the fear in his gut. That one day, the two saiyans would arrive, or worse… He didn't want to think of the worst. And thankfully, the girl's screaming did make him stop thinking.

"MOM! WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED TO MY BEDROOM?"

The girl came running downstairs, now looking more like the crazy side that he knew.

"Why it's gone dear." Panchy replied casually.

"B… But why?" Bulma looked at her mother, then her father, then her eyes rested on him. Suddenly, he could feel a dark aura coming from the girl. It was a murderous rage. Raditz knew what it felt like. He had seen it far too many times before. He sunked into the chair, his tail trembled and warped itself around him for comfort.

"You." She moved closer, pointing her finger at his nose. "IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT?"

"H-how can you be so sure?" Raditz felt himself sunk lower. He pointed out the window tremblingly, overwhelmed by her sudden scariness. "C… could have been those two guys that were here earlier."

"Oh, I'm sure it was you. You already have a record of private-property damage. You're going to die furball! Nothing those bastards in space ever done can compare to what I'M about to do you!"

"G-go ahead, see if you can even lay a hand on me!"

"Graahhhh!" Bulma threw a punch at the saiyan, but in a blink of an eye, he was already behind the sofa.

"Told ya." He smirked provokingly.

While Dr. Brief and his wife watched in amusement, the girl jumped over the couch but the saiyan dodged again. He casually jumped into the air while Bulma landed on the floor with a thud. She quickly got back up and continued pursuing him. Raditz playfully let her got close to him then flew up at the last second. After a full five minutes, Bulma stood hopelessly, glaring at the saiyan lazily floating near the ceiling.

"GET BACK HERE! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY LIKE A MAN!" She screamed in frustration.

"Give it up, **sister**." Teased Raditz.

"It's alright, hon. It will be fixed in no time." The scientist patted his daughter on the shoulder. Then he noticed something was missing.

"Hm? Where's my little Tama? Usually he comes to greet me when I'm home." He wondered.

The Briefs were then distracted by a loud sneeze. They looked up curiously.

Raditz was still in the air, but for some reason, he was sneezing and coughing uncontrollably. He dropped to the floor.

"What- in the name of Oozar-?" The saiyan couldn't finish his sentence, as he started wheezing. It eyes watered and he felt like he couldn't breathe anymore. He fell on to his side, struggling to stay conscious. The Briefs had gotten over their moment of shock and ran over to check on him. It looked as if he was asthmatic.

"Quick, Panchy. Get the Epinephrine." Dr. Brief ordered his wife while he tried to find out the cause. Then, Bulma found the culprit.

There, buried within the boy's massive hair, was one of their family cats. Tama was a pure black housecat his father brought home last year. He especially adored the cute little animal and would walk around with Tama on his shoulder. The poor thing was terrified, being trapped in the hair. She took the small cat out and gasped in realization.

"Dad! It's the cat. He's allergic!" She alerted her parents.

"Fascinating, so aliens can still get cat allergy." The old man was distracted for a brief moment. Panchy soon came back with the nasal spray.

* * *

With the help of his adopted family, Raditz could finally breathe again. They had put him on the sofa so he could get more comfy. He laid on his back, now breathing fine, but probably needed more time to readjust.

"He's getting better." Panchy sighed in relief. "I should go see if we still have any Antihistamines." with that, she headed out of the room.

Mr. Brief took the cat from Bulma and put him on his shoulder. Tama meowed, licking his face. "I'm glad it didn't get any more severe. We better let him rest for awhile." The doorbell rang just then. He turned to Bulma. "That must be the constructors. Could you watch him for me, hon? I'll be back soon."

"O… okay." The blue haired girl nodded. She watched her father go, then looked down at the alien boy. His eyes were still closed, but he seemed much calmer. Now she felt a little pity seeing him in such a state. Sure he did ruined her house, especially her bedroom, but he nearly died there and in that moment she forgot all about it. Bulma sat down on the floor in front of him and rested her cheek on one hand. He looked too battered for someone his age… As a matter of fact, she had no idea how old he was. He could be 50 but still looked like a teenager, seeing she knew nothing about his alien race's biology and all. Then she took notice of the outfit he was wearing. She hadn't had time to really look at it before. It looked like a battle armor.

" _Seems about right."_ She thought, remembering how her parents said he was a space warrior, or something.

However, she also noticed how flexible it looked for an armor. She touched the nearest shoulder blade and bent it with ease. It was as if he was just wearing a shirt. Yet when she knocked on it, the surface felt hard.

"M...Mm…" The boy stirred, startling Bulma. She retrieved her hand quickly. His eyebrows furrowed, and sweats started showing on his face. She stood up, thinking of calling her mother, but then she realized. He was just dreaming. It seemed like a bad dream. The teenage alien stirred some more. As his movements became more intense, she felt like all the furniture were shaking.

" _An earthquake?"_ She thought, a bit scared. Another burst of energy from the boy went through her and she understood what was going on. She had got to wake him up before he bring the rest of her house down with him.

"H-hey! Wake up!" The blue haired girl called, to no avail. "Um...um… What was his name? Erm…." She mumbled, slapping her hand on her forehead."Oh!"

She bent down to shake his shoulder. "Radish! Hey! Wake up!"

The name worked its magic. The saiyan's eyes snapped open and he sat up into a defensive reaction, one hand aiming at her face. Their eyes locked on each other, and she could see a dangerous glint in his eyes. Then his expression softened. Raditz lowered his hand and dropped back on the sofa, eyes closed again.

"It's just you…" He muttered, putting one arm over his forehead. Bulma sighed in relief.

"… What happened… to me?" The saiyan breathed slowly.

"You were… Well. You had an allergic reaction. Turns out you are allergic to our family cat… We gave you some Epinephrine to help you breathe…"

The boy stayed quiet, still breathing with some slight difficulty, one arm covering his eyes. Just then, Mrs. Brief came back to check on them. She asked Bulma about his condition and was happy to know he had awaken. She didn't mention anything about the mini-earthquake though, which made Bulma wondered if it was only happening within the room they were in.

* * *

"You gave us quite a scare." Panchy went over to put a hand on his head. "How are you feeling, dear?"

"Better." Replied the saiyan boy. He turned himself to sit back up.

"It's alright, if you're still tired you don't have to." Said the blonde woman.

"I've been worse." Raditz, now sitting up, cleared his dry throat, his voice still hoarse from the experience. He reached a hand for the drink on the table but then Panchy stopped him.

"Oh no, no, don't drink this. I'll get you some water." She hurried into the kitchen.

The saiyan leaned on the couch, with his head up to the ceiling. He still felt a bit lightheaded but overall fine. It was the first time he had experienced an allergy. He had thought being a saiyan made him invincible to such things. While horrible, it was quite a learning experience.

He then noticed that the girl with blue hair hadn't left. She was still standing there, watching him.

"Bulma right?" He glanced at her.

"Huh?" The girl seemed surprised by his sudden words.

"Thank you." The next two words that came out of his mouth felt weird. He couldn't recall the last time he had used those words.

Bulma seemed even more confused. "For what?"

"Waking me up." Replied Raditz, now looking away.

"Oh… I guess you're welcome then?"

The boy didn't reply. He remained thoughtful and silent until Panchy came back with a jug of water. She poured some into a new glass and handed it to him. "Here, drink up, hon. "

He took the glass and gulped it down. Then, still not satisfied, he just took the jug and finished it too.

"Careful, you might choke." Mrs. Brief warned, getting ready to help him if needed.

The saiyan set the jug down and leaned back. He seemed more lively now that he had had some water. They all turned when Mr. Brief came back into the living room. He looked at Raditz and gave him a smile.

"Ah, thank goodness you're alright. I'm sorry, sonnie, little Tama likes warm places. I think he thought your hair looked comfy. Though, we had no idea you were allergic."

"Neither did I." Raditz sniffed. His nose was getting runny again. "Looks like I won't be able to live here after all."

"What are you saying?" Panchy gasped. "Don't worry. If you take these allergy pills regularly, you'll be fine." She took out a bottle of Antihistamines from her apron pocket.

"Allergy pills?" Asked the saiyan curiously. He looked the bottle over.

"Yes, my boy. It won't cure your allergy but at least your body won't give such a serious reaction like before." Explained Mr. Brief.

"And when it gets so serious that you cannot breathe, use this one." Panchy gave him the nasal spray. "Just spray it into your nose."

"Oh…" He blinked. Then looked down at his feet. "T… Thank you… Mrs. Brief…"

"Don't be so formal. Tomorrow we'll officially be family." The scientist laughed.

"You can just call us mommy and daddy." Nodded his wife.

Raditz shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The fact that he was now calling some people he had just met his mother and father was strange, and somehow seemed wrong. "Thank you… Mommy…" Eventually he managed to say it.

"That's more like it." His adopted father patted him on the back. "I'll be in the lab if anyone needs me. I still need to study that space-pod. The material seemed extraordinary."

"If you're feeling better, Bulma," Mrs. Brief turned to her daughter. "How about you two go to the mall for some new clothes while I prepare your new bedrooms?"

"Well, seeing someone blew up my wardrobe, it's unavoidable…" Bulma sent him a glance, telling him she still hadn't forgiven him for that.

Raditz looked away, pretending to be busy studying the carpet.

"But he's not going with me looking like THAT."

That made him look up. "Like what?"

"Like a caveman."

"Be nice to your brother, dear." Scolded Panchy.

"I'm sorry mom. But I can't be seen hanging out with this- this horrid fashion disaster!" The blue haired girl pointed at her new saiyan brother. "And when was the last time you took a shower? I can smell you from over here."

"Last year?" Answered Raditz, blinking in confusion as to why she was so upset.

"First, that was a rhetorical question. Second, ew!" The girl wrinkled her nose.

"Well, Raditz, dear. I have to agree with her on this." Panchy giggled. "Bulma, could you show your brother to the bathroom? I'll see if I can get him something to change into." And so, she left the two children deal with each other.

"Well?" Bulma raised an eyebrow at Raditz.

Raditz waved his hands in protest. "No. I'm fine the way I am."

"You heard **mom** , Raditz." Bulma snarled. She then tried to pull him from the sofa but the boy wouldn't move. "Get up."

"But I'm not going to wash my hair!"

"Why? That thing looks like it's haven't been washed for decades!" Bulma spoke louder.

"B… because It'll take forever to dry! And gets heavy when it's soaked!" Protested the saiyan. "Besides, I see no problem with the way I smell!"

"You have one more chance Raditz. Are you going to the bathroom or not?" The blue haired girl stood with her arms on her hips, glaring down at her soon-to-be brother.

"I am not." Confirmed Raditz.

"You brought this upon yourself!." Smirked the girl. That said, Bulma turned around and snatched the black little furball that had just snuck its way back into the room. The poor cat meowed in confusion.

"Is… is that the… c.. cat?" The saiyan gasped. He pressed himself into the sofa, trying to stay as far away from the little creature as possible. His little experience with the animal had traumatized him for life.

"Yes. So you had better get the hell up, or Tama here will kill you!" Bulma threatened, pretending to be sicking the cat on the saiyan.

"But… but…Aaaachoo!" Sneezed Raditz. He sniffed, his eyes began watering again. "G… get it away from me! Or I'll… Aa.. I'll… Aaa… achoo!"

"Then get up and start moving." Bulma demanded.

"Alright alright! Just keep that thing away!" The saiyan stood up against his will. He sneezed again and sniffed.

"Good. Now walk up the stairs! Don't try anything stupid, I still got the cat." She pushed him forward. Raditz complied, but still glancing back hoping for an opening.

* * *

Eventually, Raditz found himself standing stupidly in a large white room, with pristine clean tiles on all sides. On his left was a sink and mirror, and on the right was the toilet, a shelf full of clean towels, and a hamper. In the middle, of course, was a large bathtub, and a shower just a little further to its left. He turned to the door, then looked at the tub again. He hated baths… Maybe he could just blast through the damn wall and fly away. His fingers twitched, really considering it.

" _No, stupid. You have broken enough of their stuff today…"_

He sniffed, his nose still itching. And now the back of his neck also itched. He bet the cat had left its fur everywhere inside his hair and now he had gotten rashes. It looked like he really needed this bath after all…

But he never liked bath. His hair would suck in all the water and drag him down. That had happened the last time he had it washed. Well, more like Nappa had thrown him into a river on one of those planets under Vegeta's command. It had stayed wet for days, until Nappa had had enough with it dripping water everywhere and twisted all the water out in the most painful way possible. That was about four years ago and he had never washed his hair since. He wouldn't be surprised if there was a twig or two in there.

"Hey! What are you doing in there?" He heard the girl pounding on the door behind him. "I don't hear the water! You're not planning on running are you?"

"Hrrr, how annoying can she be?" Muttered the saiyan. He then shouted over the door. "FOR OOZAR'S SAKE CAN YOU JUST GIVE ME A MINUTE?"

"Hurry up then! There's a big sale going on at the mall and I'm not missing it! And make sure you used the shampoo on that stupid hair of yours!"

"GAH! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" He shouted back then ignored whatever she was saying next. He put the clothes Mrs. Brief had given him on the rack. The saiyan came to the tub and studied it. It would be hard to get out of it once his hair had gotten soaked. Then he looked at the shower. It looked like those shared bathroom they had on Frieza's spaceship, which he never used. It felt weird to shower with other guys, especially those he never liked to begin with. And also his never drying hair. He didn't want to walk around like a walking mop.

All things considered, the shower seemed to be the most reasonable option. He stretched his armor to get both of his arms out of the arm holes, then proceeded to push the armor down so he could step out of it. Unlike most who prefered to get it out from the top, Raditz had to go the opposite way for his hair's sake. He took his arm and leg rings off, tossing them next to the armor. And finally, off the rest of his undergarment.

The saiyan walked to the shower, slid the glass door open and looked inside. As expected, there was a showerhead, faucets and all that. He got inside and looked at the two faucets. He turned the one with the blue label, assuming it was for the cool water. However, miscalculating his strength, he torn the poor thing right off. His face went pale blue, looking at the broken faucet handle in his hand. He threw it aside, annoyed by how weak the material was, and how they had no easy preset buttons for the water like on Frieza's ship.

With only one option left, he turned the other one, trying his best to not break it like the previous. Thankfully, it didn't. But another problem arose. The saiyan jumped the moment water came out of the showerhead. It was boiling hot! He grunted in frustration. How was he going to cool it off without the cold water? He looked at the water pipes running from on the wall and snapped his fingers. He reached to one of the pipes and torn it off the wall. The cool water came spurting out, mixing with the heated water.

He let the water rain on his face. He had to admit, it was refreshing. Now… The girl did say use the shampoo… Whatever that was… He looked around and saw a small shelf full of many different colorful bottles. He picked one up and realized he couldn't read the language on the label. Frowning, he thought of asking her, but then his pride prevented that from happening.

"Maybe they're ALL shampoo." He shrugged, then proceeded to pour half of each bottle on his massive hair. It was already getting heavy and he started having trouble keeping his head up. The saiyan begun clawing and mauling his hair to remove all the dirts. Occasionally, he tossed a leaf, or a twig aside.

"Oh… so this is where it was…" He took an unopened compacted-food bar out from somewhere amidst the hair. He remembered Nappa and Vegeta were fighting over who had eaten the last one since none of them could find it. They knew he wouldn't dare to and thus he was safe from extermination that one time.

Shrugging, Raditz unwrapped it and took a bite. Still good.

* * *

"What is that moron doing?" Bulma stood leaning on the wall outside the bathroom, tapping her foot. She looked at her watch then at the door impatiently. "It's been an hour."

Suddenly, the door swung open. Raditz came out in Dr. Brief's old vacation shirt and brown pants, looking much less wild and seemed older than his age thanks to the clothes. The only problem was…

"Geez, your hair's still dripping everywhere!" She commented, leaning to look at it closer.

"I did warn you." The saiyan shrugged. "I already used up all those towels."

"That can't be helped then… I'll get you the hairdryer…" She then paused, and sniffed his hair. "Wait a second, this smell like…" She looked up. "Which bottle did you use?"

"For the shampoo thing?"

"Yes."

"I used them all."

"YOU WHAT?!"

"You told me to"

"Just use one!"

"Well how am I supposed to know which one is the shampoo?"

"Just read the damn label you idiot!"

"I did" Raditz folded his arms. "and I didn't understand a damned thing. I can't read your stupid written language!'"

Bulma rubbed her temples. "Fine then… Come with me, and I'll see if I can dry your hair…"

"By the way," The saiyan held out the broken faucet. "Tell your father to fix this too."

Bulma gasped. "You- you hairy monkey! Haven't you broken enough things?"

"Hey, it's not that easy keeping my strength in check." The saiyan rolled his eyes.

"But wait, if it's broken, how did you get the cold water?"

"I managed." Said the saiyan, proud of himself.

Bulma stared at him with one eyebrow raised in confusion. She ran into the bathroom to check and yelped in horror when she saw it. Aside from the faucet handle being broken, the water pipes had been torn off the wall and snapped. But even more amazing was how the water had stopped. Something had blocked the water from coming out. Curiously, she poked a finger at what looked like a black clot of-

"KYAAA!" She screamed when she realized what it was.

Raditz came up behind her, still super proud of his problem solving ability. "Couldn't get the water to stop though. The towel didn't work... So I had to use my last resort. Since my hair was blocking the drain, I figured if I stuff them in the pipe it'll stop spilling-"

"EWW! YOU DISGUSTING-MORON!" Bulma yelled, jumping to the sink to wash her hands with the soap.

"I fixed it." Shrugged Raditz in confusion. Why didn't she praise his intelligence? He thought it was pretty neat.

"NO YOU MAKE IT WORSE!" Cried his adopted sister. "WHY KAMI? WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?"

"Who's Kami?" asked Raditz, squeezing some more water out of his hair.

Bulma didn't answer. She was taking deep breaths and reciting her happy thoughts. Eventually, she turned to him. "Just… shut up and follow me…"


	4. Bad Hair Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No hair was harmed in the making of this chapter... well except Raditz's...

**Chapter 4**

* * *

"How are you able to live with this much hair?!"

The younger Brief daughter stood behind her new brother with her pink hairdryer in one hand, while her other hand was lifting bunch after bunch of his hair. They were now in Bulma's temporary bedroom. The saiyan was made to sit on a chair while Bulma was trying all she could to dry his hair.

"I don't know. How do you live with so little?" Raditz rolled his eyes. He had gotten so used to people mocking or being all curious about his hair he didn't bother getting angry anymore.

"Have you ever thought of trimming it?" Suggested the girl.

"No. Why should I?" The saiyan replied.

"Well, wouldn't it get in the way or-?"

"I'll have you know, that this hair had saved me more times than you think." Raditz jerked his chin up, clearly proud of it.

Little did anyone know, having such a large amount of hair could be quite useful. While his two comrades always hated sleeping on the ground or on tree branches, Raditz never had to complain. His hair had provided a natural bed. He could use it as a comfy blanket too. Back when they were younger, whenever they got to a place with extreme cold, he always secretly snickered at how Vegeta would tremble in the cold. Once Nappa joined the team, it was always amusing to watch Vegeta trying to act tough and refusing to let Nappa carry him for warmth. And when the two bullies felt like using him for practice, his hair did help reduce the damage quite a lot.

"Ugh! This is taking forever!" Bulma grunted, looking out the window to see the sun setting. The sales should be starting soon and at this rate she wouldn't be able to make it. She looked at the small hairdryer in frustration. It wasn't strong enough. Then a light bulb lit up in her head.

"Hey, this dryer won't do. Your hair's too thick. Get up, I have a bigger one." Said the girl, unplugging the dryer.

Raditz muttered in annoyance at the trouble he was made to go through just to have his hair parched. He followed her downstairs and through a few doors into a large room filled with machinery and vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The girl called it a garage. The saiyan thought it looked like the parking lot of the space stations when he saw it. Only, none of the transportations he had ever seen in space had propellers. More like they used to have propellers, since it was old-fashioned technology.

"Neat." Mumbled Raditz, eyeing around. He trailed off, attempting to look inside one of the cars.

"Stay right here." Bulma pulled him to a spot in front of one of the vehicles with two wings and several propellers. "Don't move."

Confused and annoyed as he was, Raditz complied to see what she was planning. Bulma climbed on the plane's driver seat and started pressing buttons and flipping switches. The propellers begun moving, spinning faster and faster. Soon, the plane had generated a strong enough wind to blow his hair backward.

"Whoah!" The saiyan covered his face with one arm, amazed.

"How do ya like it?" Bulma stood in the cockpit, hands on her hips. "Just stay there for awhile and you'll be all dry in no time."

"Decent." Smirked Raditz.

"Hmm, maybe you should turn around, so it can get to your hair better." Bulma suggested.

The saiyan did as he was told. Bulma sat down and they waited for the propeller to work its magic. After a few minutes, things got boring. The girl yawned, then decided to start a conversation.

"Hey, Raditz. How old are you?"

"How old?" The question made him think. How old was he? He hadn't been paying attention to that since he lost his parents. Usually Gine would remind him how old he was. He did a quick calculation and replied. "If I count the whole year it took me to get here, it's around 156 Lunar cycles."

"H- How many Earth-year is that?" Blinked Bulma in confusion.

"How should I know. How much is one Earth-year?"

"um, well there's 365 days a year." Replied Bulma.

"And how long is one Earth day?"

"24 hours."

"Then a Saiyan moon cycle is about 34 Earth days."

"Oh," Bulma put a hand on her chin. "That's just a bit over one Earth month. So you're…"

"14." Said the saiyan casually.

"Huh?"

"A moon cycle is 34 days, 156 cycles is 5304 days. Divide that by 365 is roughly 14. That's my age. But I know your planet also got a moon, so if you prefer me using your planet's moon cycle- What?" He turned his head to see Bulma staring at him in shock. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

The girl snapped out of her trance. She shook her head. "No, nothing. It's just-"

"You looked surprised." Raditz raised an eye-brow.

"It's just- I- didn't think-" Bulma stuttered.

"What? Am I too old? Or too young?"

"No. Not that. You're just about the same age as me. Maybe a little older but-"

"Then what?" Raditz's eyes then slightly widened in realization. "You think I can't do math."

The girl sunk low into the plane's cockpit, her face turned pink in embarrassment. "It's just - you seem-"

"Barbaric?" The saiyan spoke, clearly offended.

"Your words not mine."

"So just because I don't like bath, came from a race of alien that like to battle and hang out with two idiotic comrades, you just assume I lack basic knowledge? You and all those bastards in space are all the same." Snapped the saiyan.

"The same what?" Now it was the Earth girl who got offended.

"Judgemental." Said Raditz, not turning around, but his tail swung angrily from side to side. Only now did Bulma realized he had poked a hole in his trouser for the tail.

"Well I'm sorry but you didn't even know how to read!" Argued Bulma.

"I've only been here for 12 hours or so. Of course I can't read your language yet." Raditz turned around to look at her, his tail raised high and seemed fluffier. "There are at least ten thousand different languages throughout the galaxy. And I'll have you know, I speak ten of the major space languages fluently, four of which I'm literated. All self-taught because Vegeta and Nappa are too lazy to do anything words related! So before you go around judging anyone-"

Something rubbed against his ankle, distracting Raditz from his rant. He looked down and was petrified to see, yet again, the family cat meowing, begging for his attention.

"AAAAAH!" The saiyan screamed in terror and jumped, all the fur on his tail stood up.

Bulma leaned forward to see what was happening, but she didn't have time to see Tama laying all confused on the floor, for there was a dreadful sound that made her turn to look at the propeller. Her eyes widened, all the color drained from her face.

"AAARRRGHHHH! TURN IT OOOOFF!" Screamed Raditz, now in even more distress. The plane propeller had caught his hair and was spinning him around, all the while sucking him closer to it.

In her panic, Bulma frantically searched the controls for the button to turn the engine off. It took her quite a while to finally got it to stop. The propeller's speed slowly decreased, eventually stopped, leaving the long haired saiyan dangling by the hair.

"Oh my Kami, are you alright?" She climbed out of the control and crawled on the wing to get to him.

"It'll take more than a rotor to kill a saiyan." Grunted Raditz, crossing his arms as he swung back and forth due to the momentum. "More importantly, WHY DOES THAT CAT KEEP FOLLOWING ME?!"

"Who knows. Maybe he likes you." Bulma shrugged, still trying to get his hair out.

"I hate that thing! Can't you lock it up somewhere?"

"I can't. It's just cruel to lock an animal up. Besides, he's my… no… **our** dad's favorite."

* * *

Five minutes later...

Raditz grunted, looking up at his new sister. "Can't you get me off this thing faster?"

"I'm… Trying…!" Bulma tried pulling the hair with all her strength but failed and landed on her bottom. "It's too tight! I'm sorry but you'll have to cut it."

"Cut it? No way! You made me shower, scorned me and now you want me to get rid of my hair?" As expected, the saiyan protested intensely. He now also struggled, trying to find a way to untangle himself but the situation seemed hopeless even for him.

"Come on Raditz, don't be ridiculous. it's just hair! It'll grow back!" Scowled Bulma.

"Saiyans hair don't grow back! We're born with our distinctive hairstyle and it stays the same once we've matured!" The saiyan yelled.

"What? How is that even possible!?" The girl blinked in shock. "Wait so you were already like this when your mom… you know…?"

"Give birth? No." He shook his head. "Female saiyans don't give birth. We are warriors, we don't have time for that. The scientists take the fetus out and put them into nutrition tanks called Incubators. The babies grow for one or two years then they are introduced to their parents."

"Oh." Bulma's mouth dropped, shocked by the information. "What do they-"

"But this is not the time for saiyan stuff!" Raditz interrupted her. "Can you get me off this damned thing or not?"

"Nope! I tried." Sighed Bulma. "Cutting it is the only way out."

"Seriously?"

"Yep."

"Hell no!"

"Don't be stubborn! Just do it!"

"NO!"

"Fine then stay there. I'll go to the mall now." Bulma stomped to the steps and climbed off the aircraft. Then an idea hit her. "And eat all the food there alone." She added.

"Food?" Blinked Raditz. "This 'mall' place has food?" He didn't care much about it until this one little piece of information.

"Lots and lots of food." The blue haired girl swung her arm around, drawing out a picture of a mountain of food. But then she turned around, waving her hand dismissively. "But since you're stuck there, I'll be going alone."

Raditz looked at his adopted sister walking further and further away, then at the propeller, then at Bulma again. He stirred his hands and legs in agitation. "My hair… food… but my hair…"

"WAAAAIT!" Eventually, he yelled.

Bulma smirked, stopping just in front of the door, anticipating the saiyan's decision.

"Fine… I'll cut it…" The teenage alien sighed.

She turned around, crossing her arms. "Then do it."

"Give… Give me a minute." Said Raditz, and Bulma realized his eyes were getting watery. He couldn't be crying just because of his hair could he? He had been pretty tough and prideful ever since she met him, thus the scene caught her off guard. Now she felt horrible for making him do it.

The saiyan boy looked up at his hair and reached a hand to hold onto it. "I'm… sorry." He sniffed. He spoke at if he was being made to kill his dearest friend.

Bulma felt like she was going to cry along at this point. It was devastating to watch. Even Tama, who was now sitting on the ground watching them, seemed ashamed of his actions that had caused all of it. Then, the girl realized she had ran a hand along her pony-tailed hair, stroking it, without herself even knowing.

"M-maybe I could bring you back some f-" She attempted to stop him, but her words were cut short when the saiyan fired an energy blast, cutting the tangled part of his hair right off. He fell to the floor with a thud. Bulma stood still, awaiting his next action.

"Let's go." The saiyan sprang up.

Once again, caught by surprise, she blinked.

"What are you staring at? Take me to this 'Mall' thing." Urged the saiyan.

"You're not upset anymore?"

"I still am. It's killing me inside."

"But…"

"The deed is done. So, no use crying about it anymore." Raditz shrugged. He then used one hand to shake his hair so all of the separated strands fall off. Now the length of his hair was only just around his waist. He glanced up at the shocked Bulma. "Are we going or not?"

"O… of course." Bulma sweat-dropped. "I've got to tell the maid to clean up first."

* * *

Meanwhile, in the depth of space,

The two saiyan sat in the mess-hall of Frieza's ship No.915, gorging themselves with some real food after a whole year in space. They had waited for the rescue spacecraft on Contrungan for nearly half a year, and it had taken them about the same amount of time to get back to one of the motherships. It took so long that even the thick-headed Nappa had figured out that they were messing with them and delayed the rescue mission.

"Is it true, Veggie?"

"Is it true that you got outsmarted by the hairball?"

"I can't believe the little brat got it in him!

The Frieza soldiers walking by kept on teasing them. Somehow everyone figured out what had happened on the planet. Could be that Frieza's men were spying on their scouters and overheard them talking about it, or Nappa had been too talkative for his own good. Of course the now-bald giant had denied his part in the matter.

"How good is it compared to bug-food eh Geta?"

"Does it taste like defeat too?"

Nappa tried to hide a giggle but of course Vegeta had caught signs of it. He threw a plate at the bigger saiyan's face. Nappa dodged it, but before he could turn back to laugh at the tiny prince's effort, a fork stabbed him in the forehead.

"Stop taking it out on me, Prince Vegeta." He grunted in pain and plucked the fork out in annoyance. Without Raditz to beat up, Vegeta had been using him for stress relief holes on his head started bleeding and he had to constantly wipe it off.

"But hey, at least we got outta there." He grinned. "We don't need such a weakling in our team anyway. Just the two of us is enough." He took a bite of a porkchop-like food. "Besides, he's too damn weak I bet he's half dead somewhere! So cheer up Vegeta!"

"Shut it Nappa. I will find that hairball, and I'll crush him." Shouted Vegeta, slamming his fist on the table.

"Just forget about it Vegeta. You'll just be wasting your time. Let's go to another planet tomorrow eh? I'm sure killing something will make you feel bette-"

"Hey Nappa. Nice hair!" Another group of guys passed by their table and laughed.

"Where'd you get the haircut?"

"They missed a spot!" One pointed at his moustache before they all left laughing.

The two saiyan stayed quiet for a moment, then Nappa opened his mouth.

"You know, Vegeta,"

"What?"

"When we find Raditz,"

"Yes, Nappa?"

"I'm making myself a collection of toupees."

* * *

"Achoo!"

Raditz sniffed wondered if any cat hair was still lingering on him. He was now walking along side Bulma with his hands stuffed inside the trouser pockets. The mall turned out to be a large building made of concrete and glass. It was about the size of a Frieza trading port, but much shinier. The building was packed with people. Among them he had seen other interesting species other than the dominant tailess-saiyans, like those that looked like animals. He had tried to stay away from those that looked similar to the cats though, in fear that he could be allergic to them too.

"Got a cold?" Bulma asked, not really paying attention. She was browsing through several racks of clothing. "Aww this one is cute, don't you think?" She picked out one of the dresses and tried it on herself.

The saiyan shrugged. He didn't really care, as long as she was going to take him to the food later.

"You're no fun." Bulma sighed. She checked her watch. "Where's Vivian though? She said she would come…"

She put the dress back to where it was and turned to him. She tilted her head, then circled the saiyan. "Hm, you need some trimming…"

"What? Again?" He jumped defensively. "Isn't my hair short enough already?"

"You cut it randomly so it looks like a fashion disaster right now." Explained Bulma, examining the end of his hair. "No worries. My favorite salon is in here, I'll have them fix this."

That said, she pulled him by the hand to a glass door with the word Tallie's Salon written in a fancy font on it. Inside, Raditz could see many black chairs, each in front of a large mirror. Several humans were having their hair styled by the employees. Bulma pushed the door in and dragged the spiky haired saiyan inside.

"Why if it's isn't Ms. Bulma Brief! You look wonderful dear." Immediately, they were greeted by a copper skinned young adult with turquoise dreadlocks. He wore a disco styled outfit, with a pair of sunglasses positioned on his head. He circled Bulma, looking at her hair. "What can I do for you today? Curly hair is trendy right now. Though I think the shag would look good on you too."

"Thanks Tallie." Smiled Bulma. "But I'm not here to-"

"And who Is this strapping young man? Your boyfriend?"

Bulma's face turned red, waving her hand. "No, no, no! He's just a friend." She then pointed at Raditz. "Actually he's the one getting his hair done today."

"Oh. Well then no worries. Just leave him to me." Tallie the hairstylist smiled brightly. He pulled the saiyan and pressed him into one of the empty chairs. He then leaned over to whisper into the blue haired girl's ear. "If he's still single I think you should go for it. Trust me. You two looks great together."

Bulma's face went even redder. "T-thanks for the suggestion. But no. Anyway, I- gotta go now. I'll pick you up in an hour or so." The last bit she informed the saiyan before hurrying outside.

Now left alone, Raditz began to feel insecure about his surroundings. His keen nose had picked up so many artificial and chemical smell from the place, all he disliked. Not even the few nicer fragrances coming from some of the shelves could save his nose from those overwhelming smells. Tallie quickly finished up styling a nearby woman's hair then returned to him. He felt the teen's hair and made a comment about how it felt quite rough, and how he had never seen anyone whose hair was so thick.

"So, how would you like your haircut?" Asked the man.

Raditz blinked. He had no idea how he wanted his hair (and frankly he just didn't care).

"Just do what you want." The saiyan answered, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. He didn't want to be left sitting alone in a place full of strange smell and a bunch of strangers. "As long as you don't make it any shorter." He added.

"To be honest, my boy, I also think you'd look better with long hair." Nodded the hairstylist. "But it's a little uneven here and there, so I'll fix that. Once that's done I'll see what I can do."

* * *

As time passed, the saiyan became sleepier and sleepier. He was hungry, and bored from being made to sit down for such a long period of time. He could hardly keep his eyes open to see what was happening to his hair. Earlier they had given him a bunch of hair magazines to choose from, but it just made him even more indecisive. Finally, he just picked a style at random and gave them.

The boy yawned. In his drowsy state, he faintly heard the employees chatting and giggling while doing his hair. Another special guest had arrived and Tallie had to leave him with the trainees for a while. So now he was having about three young people surrounding him. They did ask him questions about his family but since he didn't want them to start being like Mrs. Brief, he had kept the details vague.

A lot of things had happened in just a few hours of him landing on this planet. A lot of weird, yet interesting things. Sure he lost his hair and found his greatest enemy called 'the cat'. But, he also somehow got himself two new parents, a loud sister, food and soon to come: More food. He couldn't believe his luck. From being the weakest and being bullied, he was now being pampered. Maybe his luck had finally changed. Even this 'salon' place didn't seem so bad-

"And done!" One of the trainee said, snapping his attention back. The other two were giggling uncontrollably.

Raditz looked up at the mirror and… His eyes widened, then his face changed from shocked white to horrified blue, and then all red in anger and embarrassment. His hair right now was a ball of curls, a gigantic ball of curls.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?" The saiyan gasped. He could see his hair jiggling like jelly whenever he moved.

"What? Didn't you want the afro?" One girl said in confusion.

"Why would I choose this monstrosity?" Yelled the teen. He didn't even need to know anything about fashion to know it was a disaster.

"Didn't you choose this page?" The third girl gave him the opened magazine.

Raditz snatched it to look and jumped to stand on his chair. He spun around to face the three girls and shoved the magazine at their faces. "I chose the page BEFORE that!"

"Oh…" The three girls put their hands on their mouths simultaneously.

"What's with all the commotio-" Tallie returned, then, he too, gasped in horror. "Good lord! What have you three been doing while I was gone?!"

"The page must have been flipped somehow. So we thought you wanted us to do the-" One of them tried to explain the situation.

"Oh my Kaaaaaamiiiii! What is that? I think I just witnessed a murder!" A voice exclaimed and made them all turn to look. There, in the doorway, was another man. This one had a pale skin-tone, glossy curly green hair, and an outfit that made even the fashion-blind saiyan think he looked nice. "You, sir, are under arrest for murdering this young man's hair!"

"Very funny, Mac." Tallie ran a hand down his face. "I left them with the poor lad for a moment and look at what happened. B-chan's so going to kill me for this."

"Ah, ah, IF she knows about it." The green haired man waved a finger. "I'll get the blowtorch." He said jokingly.

Whatever a blowtorch was, Raditz didn't like the sound of it.

* * *

"What? Really? An adopted brother?" Asked a tomboyish girl with raven short hair in surprise. She was walking with Bulma along the shiny lobby of the shopping mall. Both of them were carrying a few bags.

"Remember the drunk-flying moron I told you about? They adopted him." Replied Bulma.

"Well I'm not surprised. It's typical of your parents." Shrugged the girl.

"But it feels so weird, Vivian! They barely even know him and just go straight to adopting him. And he's a total slob. Made a huge mess in our kitchen! And don't get me started on what he did to the bathroom…"

"Oh you'll get used to it. Then you'll see it's not that bad having a brother… sometimes…"

"Vivian, he makes your brother seems like an angel." Sighed the blue haired girl. "Though, what's really weird about this whole thing is-"

The girls were distracted by a lot of noises. Looking up ahead, they saw a huge crowd gathered outside a shop. Bulma yelped in fear when she realized which.

"Hm? I wonder what's going on in there…" Vivian blinked curiously.

"Oh no… I think I do…" Gulped Bulma.

"You do?"

"Yes… I left _**him**_ there!"

* * *

Inside the salon, the employees and customers were cowering behind the cashier counter. Only a few dared to peek over their only fortress to see what was happening. In the middle of the room, the teen with a monkey tail was kicking chairs after chairs to the wall as he made his way toward the hairstylist, the three girls and the green haired man. They were clinging onto one another in a corner. The saiyan's tail fluffed angrily. Strong gush of winds started emitting from him, the tiles cracking under his very steps. Some swore they even saw sparks of lightning coming from him.

"I'm… asking… you… one… more… time…" Raditz snarled. Each and every words spoken sounded as if he was about to explode.

"Can… you… fix… this… or… not?" He pointed at his new haircut. Even his hand was shaking in anger.

"It- It will eventually flop- Just- just give it a few weeks or so." Tallie gulped. "J-just come back here by then and I'll fix it! N- No charges!"

"How long is a few weeks?" Frowned Raditz.

"21 days top?" The man smiled weakly.

"I want it fixed… Right. NOW!" Shouted the alien teen. The wind from around him pushed everything to the wall, the whole room shook and a few mirror cracked. He raised one hand and a round, shiny purple ball of light formed in his palm. The three girls started sobbing while the two men yelped. They hugged each other tighter, not minding how wrong it probably seemed for two men to be doing that.

"RADITZ! STOP!" Came a cry of horror.

The saiyan turned and saw Bulma pushing through the crowd that had formed outside of the salon. The blue haired girl was about to say something else when she finally noticed his hair. She stared with her jaw dropped, eyes widening. The other girl that had just squeezed herself through the crowd after Bulma was now trying to hold her laughter.

"Thanks Kami! B-chan! Help us!" Begged Tallie.

"Please tell him to spare me! I'm just a passerby!" Mac yelled in an unusually high-pitched voice, which earned him an annoyed glance from the hairstylist, who pushed him away in a huff.

"W-what did you people do to him?" Bulma asked, still couldn't take her eyes off the incredible scene she was seeing. "I TOLD YOU TO GIVE HIM A HAIRCUT, NOT TURN HIM INTO A POODLE!"

"I only left for fifteen minutes! He was like that when I came back!"

"We're sorry!" The three girls wailed.

"You better make them fix my hair or I'm blowing this whole place up!" Shouted Raditz, the energy ball still dangerously hovering in his hand.

"HELP US BULMA!"

Bulma put both hands on her head and screamed in frustration.

* * *

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

The blue haired girl stood in front of her saiyan brother with her hands clapped together in an apologetic gesture.

She had paid for the damage and had gotten them all away from the scene before security arrived. Now, the group of three were standing in a secluded hallway of the mall to talk about the incident. The black haired girl had been quick in her thinking and gave him one of the hoodies she had gotten for her brother. It was a little too tight for him. But as long as he could cover the hideous hairdo he had gotten from the salon, he'd take it. Raditz stood in his usual pose with his arms crossed looking down at her. She was half a head shorter, and now she looked even smaller with her head lowered.

"Hmph." The saiyan grunted. His emotion unreadable.

"I didn't think it would turn out like this! I'm sorry!" Continued Bulma. "I'll make it up to you somehow!"

Raditz glared at the girl. He had calmed down a lot by now and admitted to himself that he was also at fault for falling asleep and let those girls do whatever they wanted with his hair. He felt that her apology was truthful. But still, it wasn't enough to make him forgive her. If he hadn't promised Panchy that he wouldn't go back to his mass-killing days, the whole mall would have been levelled by now. Bulma apologized some more and he sighed. Fine then, he shall give this place one more chance.

"Food." The saiyan spoke.

Bulma looked up, blinking in surprise.

"I'm hungry. Take me to the damn food!" He repeated, walking pass her. Then he glanced back, annoyed by how she kept standing there looking all confused. "Are you deaf?"

"R-right." Bulma sweat-dropped. She had thought it would take more to calm him down. He still sounded pretty angry though.

The raven haired girl, who had been staring at the saiyan's tail the whole time he was talking with Bulma, finally looked up when his movement broke her focus. She followed after them and stayed close to Bulma so she could talk to her.

"Did you see what he did to the salon? And that tail. You didn't tell me he has a tail." Vivian whispered. "What is he?"

"He's an alien." Replied the Brief's daughter casually.

"A- alien?" Blinked the tomboy in surprise.

"Yuh huh."

"Seriously?"

"No joke. He wasn't driving a plane when he hit our home. It was a spaceship."

"Your parents adopted an alien?"

"I told you it's weird."

"Wow…"

The little outing had gotten even more awkward when they came to the food court. Vivian and Bulma just sat on one side of the table with their humble meal, watching the boy swallowing plates after plates of food. It made even Vivian, who didn't even know the guy to begin with, felt embarrassed to be on the same table as him.

"How is he not choking?" Wondered Vivian.

"Beats me." Shrugged the blue haired girl.

"Okay you win Bulma… Your brother is on a whole new level…" Laughed her friend.

They politely waited for the saiyan to finish eating, gossipping about school and ranting about Cindy to pass the time. It wasn't until half past eight that the alien boy finally decided he had had enough.

"I'm glad my parents are among the richest people in the world…" Bulma smiled weakly, a sweat drop rolling down her cheek when she looked at the bill. At least the saiyan looked much happier now that he had a full stomach. They soon continued with their shopping, the girls kept on chatting with each other while Raditz followed closely behind.

"Hey, Raditz. How about I get you another nice pair of-" As they stopped by a men's clothing shop on their way out, Bulma turned her head to talk to the boy but he was nowhere in sight. "Oh crap! Where's he?" She looked back and forth, fearing he had gotten into another trouble.

"He was just here a moment ago." Vivian also turned.

They both hurried back the way they came from and fortunately found the saiyan after just a few turns. He was standing with his hand on the glass of a shop, fixated by something inside. His tail wagging slowly. He didn't even hear Bulma the first time she called.

"Hey Raditz!" She called again, a bit louder to get his attention.

The teen finally turned, he looked at her as if she had just appeared out of nowhere.

"What're you looking at?" Bulma walked over to the glass window curiously, Vivian following suit behind.

Raditz stepped aside so they could stand where he was.

"Oh." The two girls gasped in realization when they saw it. It was an Automobile shop and the alien boy was staring at the motorcycles displayed inside.

"You like those?" Asked Bulma.

Raditz nodded, looking a bit shy out of a sudden. The saiyan had never shared his love for automobile, or technology in general, to anyone. He had learned it the unpleasant way that no one among Frieza's rank think being intellectual was cool. Therefore, he prefered keeping his hobbies and interest a secret to the world.

Bulma was about to urge the saiyan to go home with her, but then she thought about all the horrible things she had made him done that night. Maybe he deserved a little time to himself. Perhaps it would be enough for him to forgive her role in the latest incident.

"Would you like to take a closer look?" Smiled Bulma Brief.

Raditz's face brightened a little, still he asked. "But didn't you say we're going back to your house?"

"There's still time." Bulma patted him on the back. "We'll all come inside and look around."

And so they did. Raditz immediately went straight to the motorbikes and started touching and feeling them. Then, he went over to the rack of magazines and started reading them with extreme focus.

"Boys." Vivian chuckled as she sat down on a waiting bench with Bulma.

"Oh yeah, isn't Vergil a motorcycle freak too?"

"Yeah. He recently spent all his part-time job salary on some new upgrades then had to 'borrow' my allowance."

"Something tells me those two will get along just fine." Smiled Bulma, looking at how excited the saiyan was.

* * *

Letting Raditz have it way turned out to be a downside for Bulma. It took her a lot of persuasion and effort to finally get the saiyan out of the Automobile store. Eventually she had to buy all the magazine available on the racks for him. By the time they made it back home, it was already past ten and she hadn't done any of her school work. At least it was hilarious seeing her parents reacted to Raditz's hair when she told him to drop the hood of his hoodie.

"Now I can say that I have seen everything." Dr. Brief shrugged. Tama the cat meowed cutely on his shoulder.

"I don't know, dear," Panchi said with a hand on her cheek as she always did. "He does look cute in an afro."

"Mom, just be honest." Bulma sweat-dropped.

"I am." Replied the blonde woman.

Raditz decided to just ignore that and pulled the hood back up to cover the embarrassing haircut. "Panchy, where's my bedroom?"

"What did I tell you, son?" Dr. Brief reminded him.

The saiyan cleared his throat, then tried again. "Mom, where's my bedroom?"

"Fifth door on the left, honey." Smiled Panchy.

Bulma watched her new brother went upstairs with all the things she had bought for him, then also wished her parents goodnight as she felt that her eye-lids were heavy. She went for a quick shower to change into her new nightgown. She had decided to wake up early in the morning to do her homework and thus, had dropped herself onto the bed the moment she got back to her bedroom.

"What a weird day…" She murmured, staring at the ceiling. "Let's just hope it's not going to get any weirder tomorrow…"

In the other room, Raditz dropped all the bags on the bed. He was about to remove the hoodie but then decided to leave it on. No, he wasn't ready to see 'it' again. If the bastards at the salon wasn't lying, he would have to live with this monstrosity for nearly a month. He guessed it was karma for breaking their home and still had the nerve to let them treat him like a son. He still refused to believe he deserved any of the nice things they had done for him.

He took one of the magazines Bulma had bought for him, sat on the windowsill and started flipping the pages. It was going to be a long night, which was fine for the saiyan since he usually stayed up for days before actually needing some sleep.

He flipped another page and stopped, staring at the image of a yellow motorbike with a large windshield, and smirked.

He knew what he was going to be doing when the sun rises...


	5. Disaster waiting to happen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time Dr. Brief learn not to leave his new son out of sight...

**CHAPTER 5**

* * *

_Rizzzzzzzz Rizzzzzzzzzzzzz_

Sparks of light brightened the room whenever the chainsaw met the round surface. Dr. Brief pressed the tool against one piece of the space pod. He kept it there for a while then lifted it. His eyes widened in surprise and curiosity when he realized no visible damage could be seen. The surface of the spacecraft was still smooth.

"Fascinating." The man lifted his protection mask. He put the chainsaw away then used one hand to twist his moustache, then proceeded to pick up the blowtorch. Dropping his mask back down, he started the tool, which spouted a strong gust of fire at the object. As expected, the piece was still unharmed when he turned the blowtorch off. Not even a grey burn-mark. This got the scientist excited. He had been looking for such a strong material to build resistance for his products. But he still needed to test this material in more extreme conditions.

"I wonder how it will react to acid." The scientist rubbed his chin.

The automatic door of the lab slid open with a hiss. Dr. Brief turned to look and smiled when he saw his family's newest member standing in the doorway. The saiyan boy had changed into a bigger hoodie, which was light grey on the torso and crimson on the arms. The zipper was only half pulled, revealing the white tank-top inside. Below that, he wore a pair of tobacco jogger pants and white sneakers with red stripes. Bulma had truly done a good job in picking clothes for him. The teen was holding a red access card in one hand and what seemed like a magazine in another.

"Ah, come in, my boy." Greeted the old man. "So you found my lab."

"Panchy-" Raditz noticed the man raising an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "I mean, mom told me."

The saiyan stepped inside, slipping the card into his pants pocket. He was immediately fascinated by the machinery inside. Sure they weren't as high-tech as the ones in space, he still liked it. He hardly ever had time to be around his own planet, let alone the the laboratories, due to the amount of time required for missions.

"It's already past twelve. Are you not tired? I'm sure it's been a long day for you kids." Asked Dr. Brief, now pressing buttons on a touch pad.

"I'm not." Replied the saiyan shortly. "I can sleep only once every three days if I want to. A week if I really push it."

"Really?" The scientist turned to look at him. "Hahah, I wish I can be like you, son. Maybe I can get all these orders done faster if I were a… saiyan was it?"

"Yes, saiyan." He was now walking around the lab, looking at the machines and computers.

"Still, it's not very healthy for youngsters like you to overwork yourself." Said the old man with concern, turning to the computer screen nearby to look at the data.

"You're also working late." Raditz shrugged, turning around to look at his foster father.

"Fair enough." Laughed Dr. Brief, taking a drag of his cigarette.

"That thing on your mouth. What is it?" The teen asked curiously.

"Oh this? It's called a cigarette." Dr. Brief held the roll of tobacco with two fingers so the saiyan could take a look.

"What's in it?" Raditz sniffed. It smelt like burning leaves.

"It's just tobacco leaves rolled in paper."

"Why do you always keep it in your mouth?"

"It helps me work better."

"How is that?"

"Well, The leaves contains Nicotine. When you breathe in the smoke it relaxes your brain, and help you focus." Said Dr. Brief, pointing at the burning tip of the cylinder. "You use fire to light this end of the put this end in your mouth and inhale the smoke coming out of the other end."

"Oh, like the Uta-pipe."

"What's that?" Blinked the purple haired man.

"Space-stuff." The boy shrugged again. The Uta was a wooden pipe invented by the alien race that once inhabited Frieza planet 304. It also got two ends and they would burn a mixture of the Ethm leaves and the juice from the Inerh tree on one end, while inhaling from the other. Only, aside from making them feel groovy, the Uta could make people see strange things, or invert their color perception. He and Vegeta had tried it once when some Frieza soldiers taunted them, which made Nappa getting all upset and angry when he found out for some reason.

"Anyway, can I try?" Asked the saiyan eagerly.

"How old are you, son?"

"14."

"Ah, too bad. You'll have to wait six more years." Laughed Dr. Brief.

Frowned Raditz in annoyance. "Why that long? It's just burning leaves."

"It's in the law, son. You must be 20 to smoke a cigarette here." Explained the scientist. "Nicotine isn't good for youngster's development. Also, it's not good for the lungs, causes respiratory illnesses."

"But you're using it." Gasped the saiyan in confusion.

"Makes you addicted too." Dr. Brief added. "I can't work without it. I recommend you stay away from it for now."

"I'm sure I can take it." Said Raditz confidently. "I mean, I tried the Uta when I was 9. Nothing bad came of it."

"It's still a no, son." Dr. Brief put the cigarette back into his mouth and continued working.

Frustrated by the rejection, the saiyan made a huffing sound and scowled. He stepped closer, thinking of snatching the cigarette from him. He was sure he could take it without the man even knowing. But as he raised his hand, the tiny black cat on Dr. Brief's table turned its head, staring straight at him. It was as if the animal knew he was planning something bad.

He retrieved his hand quickly then realized it was just a cat. He had nothing to be afraid of. As long as he wasn't going to touch it. Right? The cat's persistent staring caused him to stare back. Only when his foster father spoke did he break the intense staring contest with the creature.

"But you're here not to ask me about the cigarette, are you?" Asked the scientist.

"Oh… yes…" Replied Raditz, raising the magazine in his hand for the man to see. He had almost forgotten his intention for going to the lab. "I was going to ask you to tell me what this says."

"Hm?" Dr. Brief turned to look. "You can't read it? When Bulma said she bought you some magazines I thought you could."

"No. I've only been looking at the pictures." Admitted the saiyan.

"Oh, but you speak Japanese just fine!"

"Is that how you call the language here?" Raditz blinked curiously. "It's actually the most spoken language in the galaxy. But each planet has their own dialect, and different written forms. I've only learnt the intergalactic one. We saiyans learned it from our business partners."

"Ah, I see. That's impressive. I didn't think it's so popular in space." Said the man, taking the book from his adopted son's hand. "It's alright, I can help you with this. And tomorrow I'll tell Bulma to teach you how to read 'em. So, which part do you want to know about?"

Raditz leaned over to help him open to the right page. It was a dissect of a motorcycle with the name of each part along with descriptions. Dr. Brief read it out loud so the boy could hear, and also gave his own explanations whenever Raditz get confused. The saiyan stood on his toes to look over the man's shoulder, his tail moving from side to side excitedly.

"I think I got it." After half an hour or so, the teen took the magazine back, finally satisfied with the information he got. "Do you have everything they listed here?"

"Of course I do." Smiled the old man. "My corporation makes lots of things, including bikes."

"Where do you keep them?" The saiyan asked, shoving the rolled up book into his other pocket.

"In the garage."

"And the tools?"

"Same."

"Perfect." Smirked the saiyan.

Dr. Brief turned, about to get back to his work, but suddenly stopped and spun his chair around. "Wait, you're not going to make one are you?"

Raditz halted. He was almost to the door.

"Is there a problem?" The boy turned to his foster father.

"Yes and no." Dr. Brief sent some cigarette smoke out of his nose. "I have no problem with you being enthusiastic about this. But I don't think you can build a functioning motorcycle just by looking at pictures. How about I give you one of our spare ones? We have plenty of those in the garage too."

"I've seen them. They do look nice, but not what I'm going for."

"Well then what are _**you**_ going for, young man?"

The saiyan described his idea, which earned a look of surprise and amusement from the scientist. Still, he repositioned his glasses and shook his head. "It's not impossible. I had thought of it before. But it's also not something you can build alone yet. It's more than just a few parts put together."

"I'm determined to try." Argued Raditz, crossing his arms, striking a pose.

Dr. Brief looked at him, then started laughing. He got off his working chair and walked over to the saiyan, patting him on the shoulder. "Now I am convinced Panchy and I have made the right decision taking you in. I like that look on your face."

"You think I can do it?" The teen blinked, hopeful.

"Hell no." Answered the man with a straight face and the saiyan fell over comically.

"Even you look down on me. At least I know how to work the tools. I fix Vegeta and Nappa's space-pods all the time. Well whatever, I'll make it work somehow!" Raditz got back up, veins appearing on the side of his face. He turned to leave.

"No, no. What I mean is," Dr. Brief pulled him back. "You cannot build it alone."

"So?" Scowled Raditz.

"You're gonna need help." Winked the scientist, wrapping one arm over the saiyan's shoulder.

* * *

_Beep… Beep… Beep…_

**_Click!_ **

The blue haired girl turned off her alarm clock. The sky was light blue, but the sun hadn't risen high enough to warm things up yet. Bulma stretched her arms and rolled a few more times on the warm bed. Usually she woke up much later, but today she had to finish all her homework before school started. The homework was kind of a motivation, so she pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes. She slipped her feet into the fluffy slippers and made lazy steps to her wardrobe to get her clothes. Once he had gotten what she needed, Bulma continued her drowsy walk to the bathroom. She opened the door, and snapped out of her sleepy state immediately.

"MOOOOOOM!"

The sound of her daughter's screaming made Panchy look up at the stairs. She was in the middle of making breakfast and coffee for the whole family. Bulma came running down to the living room just as her mother casually stepped through the hole Raditz had punched on the wall (which now connecting their kitchen and their living room).

"MOM! THE BATHROOM! IT'S-"

"Hm? What's wrong with it?" Panchy tilted her head, still stirring the bowl of pancake batter in her hand.

"It's gone! And there's a giant hole-"

"Of course it's still gone dear. We haven't done fixing it yet." Said Panchy in confusion.

Bulma blinked, then slapped a hand on her forehead. "Oh… That's right… I forgot…"

Her mother giggled.

The girl sighed. "Sorry, mom… I still need to get used to this…" She turned back to the stairs and made a few steps up. Then turned her head to look at the blonde woman again when she remembered something. "Where's Raditz? I think his room was open."

"Ah, he's in the garage with your dad." Answered Panchy, now back in the kitchen.

"Hm? The garage? What're they doing there?"

"Your dad's helping him make a motorcycle."

"Oh." Bulma stepped a few more steps then stopped. "Wait. WHAT?"

* * *

"W...wow… She wasn't kidding…" Stood Bulma in awe inside the garage. She was now in her casual clothes, holding a steaming mug of coffee, looking much more awake. Her gaze fixed on the frame of the motorcycle her father and Raditz was working on.

The saiyan had taken off his hoodie to work easier. Bulma had to try her best not to let out a laugh at the sight of his afro.

"You're up early today." Dr. Brief turned to look at his daughter. He was in the middle of welding some parts together.

"I have some unfinished homework." Replied the blue haired girl, taking a sip out of her drink.

"Anyway, dad, why are you making a new one? If he wants a motorbike just give him one of ours."

"I want to try something new." The scientist smiled. "Come, we'll show you."

Curious, Bulma walked over to stand behind her father.

"Here," Dr. Brief put a hand on the control. "If you press and hold this button," He pressed down on a button on the vehicle.

The windshield started moving and went all the way to the back of the motorcycle where it connected.

"Looks pretty cool, dad. Hm, but It's quite bulky isn't it?" She commented.

"Well it's the prototype."

"Hm? Where're the wheels?" Asked her in surprise.

"There's none."

"Then how can it run on the street?"

"It's a hoverbike dear." Grinned the man. "Raditz described those hover vehicles in space for me and we tried to replicate them."

"H… how can he-" Stuttered Bulma.

"Memory? I've seen the mechanics work on them." Shrugged Raditz.

Bulma was speechless. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

"It's nothing too impressive. You see them all the time in space." Raditz said indifferently. "Besides, saiyans have good memory. I still remember things from when I was 3. Anyway, what's this black water?"

Bulma looked over and blinked in confusion when she saw the saiyan holding a mug that looked similar to hers. She looked down at her hand, finally realizing her drink was gone.

"Whoah? What? How?" She gasped.

The alien boy smirked then he took a large sip of the drink. He swallowed with difficulty and grimaced. "Ewk! Bitter!"

"Of course it is, moron. It's coffee!" Bulma grunted, snatching the cup from him. "Give it back!"

"Have it!" The saiyan rubbed his hand on his tongue, trying to get the bitterness off it. The drink smelt so nice but turned out to be horrible. "It sucks anyway! I'd rather take more of that!"

Dr. Brief and Bulma looked to where the boy was pointing. A can of motor oil had been ripped open.

"You drank that?" Asked both of them in horror.

"Yeah. Isn't it just brown water?" Said the saiyan, licking his lips. "At least it's not bland and chewy like those round thingy."

The two humans looked over to see a pile of tires, one of them looked as if a beast had chewed on them.

"What did you call them again?" Raditz stood with his hands on his hips, oblivious to the look of terror on his new sister and father's faces.

"Tires." Dr. Brief answered instinctively. "since when did you?"

"I was hungry again last night."

"Y… you feeling okay?" Bulma asked with real concern.

"I'm fine, what's wrong with you two?" Raditz raised an eyebrow at the two color-drained faces.

"I… guess a trip to the hospital is to be scheduled…" Dr. Brief sweat-dropped.

"Where is that? Do they have food there?"

"it's too early for this…" Bulma facepalmed. She then looked at her watch and started heading to the door. "Dad, I'd love to help you out but I've got homework to take care of. You two have fun."

"Sure thing, my dear."

"Oh and mom said breakfast is almost done. If… you're still... hungry." She gave Raditz a weird look then exited the room.

* * *

It was an unusually noisy morning for the Briefs. Their adopted son was stuffing himself with pancakes, sausages and bacons while their daughter loudly complaining about table manners. Things only quieted down when Bulma had to leave for school. The saiyan too, had stopped his breakfast early so he could get back to working on the hoverbike with Dr. Brief.

When the sun had almost reached the ten o'clock mark, the hoverbike prototype was finally finished. Both of them stood proudly in front of the finished product. The scientist put a hand on his adopted son's shoulder.

"Looks like it's finished. You did well, son." He smiled warmly.

Raditz looked up, overwhelmed by a new feeling. He had never heard his father,or anyone for that matter, compliment him. It was strange, yet heart warming, when he heard it from an alien he had just met yesterday.

"W… we can't be so sure… we still need to test it… " He looked down at the ground, not knowing how to react to the new experience.

"Well, you haven't got a license yet so I can't let you take it outside yet. But I'm sure our backyard is more than enough." Dr. Brief drew his cigarette then exhaled the smoke.

"Then let's do it!" Said the saiyan excitedly. He picked the whole bike up with one hand and begun running outside.

Dr. Brief laughed, shaking his head, and followed him.

Raditz set the hoverbike down and hopped on to it. He wasted no time turning on the engine. The vehicle hummed and a button shone up. He pressed it. In response, the bike started levitating itself.

"Looking good." Remarked Dr. Brief. "Though it looked a bit bumpy going up. I'll try to improve that later."

"Let's see how it flies." Raditz turned the handle and the bike shot up into the sky, surprising both him and his new father.

"Careful!" Called the man from below.

"I'm fine! Just- need to learn how to control- it!" Replied the tailed boy, trying to make the vehicle go the right way.

The bike went up and down in a distorted zic zac motion. Thankfully, after a while, the boy finally got the hang of things and managed to get it to come down. He had it staying close to the ground and went around the whole yard.

"Boxers!"

Dr. Brief turned around at the sound of his wife calling. She was looking out from one of the nearby windows.

"You have guests!"

"I'll be there in a minute!" Replied the scientist. He looked at Raditz still having fun riding the bike around and shrugged. Maybe leaving him alone for a while wouldn't hurt...

* * *

The saiyan stopped. He was in the middle of doing a U-turn when he noticed Dr. Brief's absent. He stood up on the hoverbike and looked around, wondering where the old man was. He then jumped off the vehicle, thinking of waiting for the scientist to come back.

It was then the thought hit him.

The backyard was huge but there weren't much obstacles, and for a saiyan, it was dull. Saiyans liked challenges and Raditz wasn't an exception. He wanted to test his new bike somewhere more interesting, and see how good he could maneuver it.

Glancing left and right to make sure Dr. Brief wasn't nearby, the boy hopped back on the bike and started the engine. Humming like before, the hoverbike slowly moved upward. Raditz turned the handle-bar.

In a whoosh, the vehicle shot forward and went over the wall of Capsule Corp, right into the street outside.

* * *

_**Author:** Sorry for the wait. I have been focusing on my comic My Brother in Spirit and other stuff so I kind of got a writer's block. Also, I have been having too many new ideas lately I'm overwhelmed T_T_


End file.
